Insights from the American Customer Satisfaction Index

Airlines: In a Year of Gains, Ultra-Low-Cost Yields Low Satisfaction

Surprise: The airline industry overall is improving its customer experience, according to surveys of thousands of passengers flying over the past year conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). While recent high-profile incidents peppered April headlines—from United’s passenger debacle to Delta’s spring break computer outage—consumers evaluating their experiences between April 2016 and March 2017 see year-over-year improvement as industry satisfaction bumps up 4.2% to an ACSI score of 75 (scale of 0 to 100).

Industry leaders JetBlue (82), Southwest (80), and Alaska Airlines (78) turn in scores that compare well with top-scoring companies in other industries. Other carriers—including legacy airlines—fall anywhere from middling to below-average for customer satisfaction. But passengers that are the most dissatisfied are those who opt for low price above all else. In a year that brings nearly across-the-board escalation in passenger satisfaction, the ultra-low-cost operators Spirit and Frontier lose ground (dropping 2% and 5%, respectively).

With major airlines like Delta and American starting to compete more aggressively on price, low ticket prices are not enough of a trade-off for low service quality. Across three years of ACSI measurement, Spirit consistently ranks last for passenger satisfaction, although the airline did improve last year (up from 54 in 2015 to 62). In 2017, however, the airline does not build upon that gain. Thus far, Spirit’s efforts over the past year to better customer relations and improve on-time arrivals are not paying off as passenger satisfaction instead recedes to 61.